Successful singer, shares stage and stories with stand-up

Liz Edwards laughed just thinking about those who smoked and bowled back in high school.“The lowest rank of society,” she grinned.Fortunately, the singer and songwriter would have nothing to do with gutter balls and splits. Unfortunately, she had other demons to armwrestle.“I was addicted to alcohol and a few other substances at different points in my life,” Edwards said. “Mainly alcohol. I was drinking heavily when I was 16.”Ten years later, she was clean.“I was blessed with an early recovery in my life,” Edwards said. “I was blessed with sobriety.”Ah, life's little twists.“Addiction is a way of staying out of your feelings,” Edwards said. “Now, I do everything to get into my feelings. That's where the songs come from. It's 180 (degree turn) for me.”Edwards takes her heartfelt songs to the Empress Theatre in downtown Vallejo on May 18, co-headlining with stand-up comic Mark Lundholm, whose life-and-near-death-and-sobriety has been well documented in books, TV, and his “recovery” shows.Both met and first performed in the same event in 1994 when introduced by promoter Mary McCutcheon of Benicia, now the volunteer coordinator at the Empress.“I was really nervous” of that first-time opening for Lundholm in Santa Rosa, said Edwards. “Not for me. Nervous for Mark. He was so intense. Now he's one of my dearest friends. I absolutely adore him.”Lundholm returned the praise.“Liz is a kick. She lives for music and I'm glad she has a record company that believes in her,” Lundholm said. “We always have a great time backstage and the language is not always PG.”Though Lundholm performed at the Vacaville Performing Arts Theatre last May, it's been two years since Edwards joined him. “I've been busy working on a record and I was going through stuff that comes up in life,” Edwards said. The eventual CD, “House of Mirrors,” is released this month with an $8,000 financial assist from the fund-raising web site, kickstarter.com that solicits donations from anyone interested. “I have some absolutely fabulous friends and fans,” said Edwards, who eased onto the stage slowly early in her career.“I just wanted to be a songwriter,” she said. Perhaps a bit reluctant to sing at the start, Edwards knew that she definitely wasn't a stand-up comic and didn't feel the pressure to spew one-liners when opening for Lundholm.“I've never been funny when I've tried to be,” she said. “I'm often funny when I don't know it and can't tell if people are laughing with more or at me and it doesn't really matter. I just talk about the songs.”Don't expect some goofy Adam Sandler-like parody when Edwards performs.“My songs tend to be very serious,” she said. “I feel if I don't make you cry I haven't done my job.”She sees her duty as complementing Lundholm's humor.“I always think I'm the meat tenderizer. I get people to open up and feel your feelings,” Edwards said. “And then Mark comes up and hammers you with his incredibly intense humor. We do have a common message, we just deliver it in different ways.”The message, Edwards said, is one of hope “that people can and do change, can and do recover from addiction every day. And people die from addiction every day. That's a reality.”Though the singer is on the March cover of “Rockers in Recovery” magazine, the show at the Empress isn't just for addicts.“We're not hitting anyone on the head,” she said. “I'm speaking to the emotional journey.”Undoubtedly, a good chunk of the audience knows that path.“One comment I got after a show was, ‘You're better than Valium,'” Edwards said. “And that came from someone who was addicted to Valium a long time.” Edwards chuckled.“That just melted my heart,” she said. If you goWho: Mark Lundholm and Liz EdwardsWhen: Sat., March 18, 8 p.m.Where: Empress Theatre, 330 Virginia St., VallejoTickets: $25 advance; $30 door Info: empresstheatre.org